While youre waiting l ook through the writers magazines on your chair for ideas to use with teachers and students wwwELAConnectionscom Cindy Blevins CREEPY TALES Watch this Power Point and learn how to ID: 646128
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Slide1
Halloween Writing and Staff Development ideas with Writer’s Magazines
While you’re waiting . . . look through the writer’s magazines on your chair for ideas to use with teachers and students.
www.ELAConnections.com
Cindy BlevinsSlide2
CREEPY TALES
Watch this Power Point and learn how to transform your typical Halloween tale into a believable story that truly gives your readers the creeps, shivers their spines, and
shakes their souls.
www.ELAConnections.comSlide3
REALITY CHECK
It takes a lot of REALITY to create a story that gives readers the frights they won’t soon forget.
Good fiction is a lie that can be believed.
~ Mort CastleSlide4
REALITY CHECK:
SETTINGWRITE WHAT YOU KNOW
Ordinary settings work because readers are familiar with the ordinary. They live there. They don’t expect something creepy to happen.If your setting is an ominous, fog-shrouded graveyard, you’ll be hard-pressed to spring a surprise on your readers.Slide5
WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW
When the ordinary is invaded by the terrifying, extraordinary horror happens. It’s
the intrusion of the extraordinary, the appalling unusual into the lives of ordinary, credible, for-real characters that makes for compelling shock fiction. ~ Mort Castle
REALITY CHECK
: SETTINGSlide6
WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW
Successful authors write about places they know. Stephen King, a Maine native, has lived in Castle Rock and Salem’s Lot. Even though he changed the names of the towns in his work, his writing is realistic and believable because he knows every little detail about these places.
REALITY CHECK:
SETTINGSlide7
WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW
A good horror story character is a fictional someone who’s as alive and unique as anyone we know really well out in the real world. He
must
be in order for readers to care about him. If readers don’t care, it won’t matter what the character does or what happens to him.REALITY CHECK: CharactersSlide8
WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW
Don’t use stereotypes
—they are limited by the mold that created them and are unfair to real people in the world. Remember: write about what you know. You know people and how they feel when someone lets them down. You’ve
experienced disappointment, joy, hate, love, embarrassment, and pride, so you can create credible characters whoexperience these emotions.REALITY CHECK: CharactersSlide9
WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW
The real characters you create will
“
hold out a welcoming hand and yank readers into your waking nightmare—and keep them there!” ~ Mort Castle Name meaning searchREALITY CHECK: CharactersSlide10
WRITE
WHAT YOU KNOW
EXAMPLE
Kathy, my mini-me cousin, and I were excited about watching the fireworks on Lake LBJ last summer. Since I had to work late, Kathy got there early to secure a great viewing spot for us at the end of the public boat dock closest to the bridge. I had to step over the Justice family—mom, dad, and the eight little
ones
, along
with several
others — to
claim
my spot.
REALITY
CHECK
:
CharactersSlide11
REALITY
CHECK
SETTING
Your favorite store at the mall
Your grandmother’s houseYour friend’s roomYour lockerYour favorite hometown pizza placeBrainstorm other familiar settings
CHARACTERS
Your cousin
Your teacher
Your uncle
Your school nurse
Your best friend
Brainstorm other familiar charactersSlide12
REALITY CHECK:SHIFT FROM BLOOD AND GORE
A modern horror story can’t simply rely on pointless violence and shock value to disgust its reader; it must work hard to instill genuine chills. The writer needs to unnerve the reader enough to make him flick on an extra light and lock the back door, just in case.Slide13
REALITY CHECK:
FIND THE FEAR What does society fear today? What do you fear? Go to the root of these terrors. Are you afraid of the dentist because of the pain, or does it go deeper?
LIST OF FEARS
EXAMPLE: Stephen King’s “Quitters Inc.” is on the subject of giving up smoking—with terrifying consequences.Slide14
REALITY CHECK:
FIND THE FEAREXAMPLE
My aunt always freaks out about mosquitoes. They’re annoying little suckers, but with a good bug-bite cream, you hardly remember you were bitten. After being bitten a few times, and since we forgot the bug-bite cream, I relented and let Aunt Nita cover me in Deep Woods OFF™. However, as the fireworks got better, I started feeling worse. . .Slide15
REALITY CHECK:
SUSPENSEFUL PLOTStephen King uses 3 Steps
to Create Suspense:
HINTS/DETAILS
that produce reader curiosity about a problem or a worry somewhere down the line (worrisome thing or idea)RECURRENCE OF HINTS to increase reader worryPEAK SUSPENSE/RESOLUTIONSlide16
REALITY CHECK
: SUSPENSEFUL PLOT
EXAMPLES from Stephen’s King’s Misery
THE SETUP/HINTS/DETAILS –The physical confinement of the hero and the fact that he is partly paralyzed is, in itself, enough to create worry. Add to this the fact that his caretaker is a sadist and you have the setup of a situation that is highly fraught with danger. Anyone in (or reading about) such a situation would feel apprehension about what might happen next. (
Freese)RECURRENCE OF HINTS happens whenever Annie says, “Now I must rinse.” The first time she says it, she tortures Paul; the recurrence of the phrase reminds readers that more punishment is on the way. (Freese) PEAK SUSPENSE/RESOLUTION occurs at the end of the novel when Paul finally attacks and burns Annie from his sick bed, managing to kill her at last through herculean effort. (Freese)Slide17
REALITY CHECK
: LIFE LESSONS
THEMES such as “Breaking the rules
invites consequences.” “Shortcuts to success
lead to destruction.”are perfect vehicles for tales of ruin. W.W. Jacobs’ “The Monkey’s Paw” explores the idea that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. In this story, a family is given three wishes, which come at a horrifying price.Slide18
RECAP
Horror stories can lurk anywhere. What makes them truly terrifying
isn’t the unknown but the familiar stretched over a
very unusual canvas.
ELA CONNECTIONSSlide19
Read to write
READ:
“Quitters, Inc.” by Stephen King
“The Monkey’s Paw,”
by W.W. Jacobs NOTICE/ANALYZE:Setting & Characters (ordinary? Name symbolism?)Fears/Phobias and word choicePlot: Hints (details), Recurrence of Hints, Peak SuspenseIntroduction/ConclusionThemes (underlying message about the topic, life, or human nature)
If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut. ~
Stephen King who reads 70-80 books/yearSlide20
THINK &
WRITETHINK about your story; organize it in your mind and/or on paper using the information listed below:
WRITE—get your ideas on paper 1. Pull your readers into your story with an intriguing INTRODUCTION. 2. Create SETTING/CHARACTERS
that are real/believable. 3. Build your story on a common FEAR/PHOBIA with HINTS (DETAILS), RECURRENCE OF HINTS and PEAK SUSPENCE
. 4. Create a CONCLUSION that will leave your reader with the chills and a clear idea of your THEME (lesson learned about the topic, life, human nature).Slide21
SHARE &
REVISESHARE your writing when you’re finished with your first draft to get feedback for revision.
REVISE
using feedback and your rubric to make your writing clear (Does every word contribute to the meaning? Does every
sentence and paragraph flow to the next? Is there a clear theme?). When your story is ready for rewrite, cut it to the bone. Get rid of every ounce of excess fat. This is going to hurt; revising a story down to the bare essentials is always a little like murdering children, but it must be done. ~ Stephen King Slide22
REWRITE,
EDIT & final draftREWRITE
your story, incorporating the revisions from peer/teacher feedback and rubric.
EDIT your story to make it correct (read
each sentence from the bottom up to determine correct spelling, capitalization, and punctuation of each sentence).WRITE/TYPE FINAL DRAFT being careful to include all edits.Slide23
SHARE &
CELEBRATE!SHARE
your story with friends, family, your class, or even with the world through publication or by entering a writing contest.CELEBRATE
your accomplishments!
www.ELAConnections.comSlide24
SOURCES
Castle, Mort. “A Waking Nightmare.” Writer’s Digest
, 11 Mar. 2008. Accessed 15 September 2017.Freese
, Chris. “How to Write Suspense Like Stephen King.” Writer’s Digest
, 2 Nov. 2016. Accessed 15 September 2017.Petit, Zachary. “13 Stephen King Quotes on Writing: Your Moment of Friday Zen.” Writer’s Digest, 9 Mar. 2012. Accessed 15 September 2017. “Stephen King: The 'Craft' Of Writing Horror Stories.” FreshAIr Author Interview. NPR. 2 Jul. 2010. Radio.
Sambuchino
, Chuck. “
3 Things I Learned About Writing: Analyzing Stephen King’s IT
.”
Writer’s Digest
, 5 Sept. 2015. Accessed 15 September 2017.
Klems
, Brian A. “
Write Like Stephen King: How to Create Scary Monsters
.”
Writer’s Digest
, 26 Oct. 2016. Accessed 15 September 2017.
www.ELAConnections.comSlide25
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